This past April, Millward Brown Digital hosted the eleventh annual Digital CMO Summit in Miami, FL. The event brought together 200 industry leaders for three days of hard-hitting sessions and networking opportunities. The agenda was jam-packed with top-notch speakers who shared their perspectives on this year’s theme, #GettingDigitalRight. Over the next few weeks we plan to share with you the one-on-one video interviews with select speakers and attendees.

As Edwin explains, with so much availability of data – the most important thing is respect and transparency with the consumer. What data provides isn’t an avenue to take advantage of the consumer but to use it to grow relationships and make experiences better for the consumer. Yahoo! is creating a better experience for visitors through personalization and the study shows that consumers want more personalization in both content and advertising.

The study shows that 48% would welcome the opportunity to read content more relevant to my interests and 55% agreed with personalization they wouldn’t need to browse through irrelevant content, thus saving time and attention

Ads currently don’t resonate well with consumers, they are lacking relevancy, across devices:

On the other hand, the study shows, for advertisers to get it right -they need to remember it begins and ends with the consumer. It doesn’t matter what screen the content appears on – it is about finding how the consumer is using each those screens and planning across devices. The Millward Brown Digital AdReaction Study further emphasizes this need to understand consumer screen usage to better target advertising and content.

The study shows that half of consumers are more likely to interact with ads that are personalized to them. When done right you get balance between consumer, advertiser and publisher. This is especially relevant as more research suggests the importance of content and context in ad targeting, as demonstrated in this Wall Street Journal post on programmatic buying.

About Kristen Luongo:Kristen Luongo serves as Marketing Manager for Millward Brown Digital. Since joining the company in 2008, she has been fully immersed in all aspects of Millward Brown Digital’s marketing programs; developing and executing both online and offline campaigns. Most notably, she plans and manages all company events including the annual Digital CMO Summit. If you like what you read, you can connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.